that's why nobody likes him, known will endorse him. he looks like a jerk. he's standing all by himself. there's something to say about . he looks like a jerk. he's standing all by himself. and you know, there's something to say about having a little bit of ant to get other people to do things. you can't be a lone wolf and stand there. that's sort of what we have right now as a president. we have a president that can't get anything done, so he just keeps signing executive orders all over the place. >> and that's the last word. joining me tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. on msnbc. the 11th hour starts right now. tonight the general running donald trump's west wing takes his first turn at the podium. his objective? project calm and cleanup all those press accounts of chaos. plus 22 days after hurricane maria raf aimed puerto rico, the

mayor of san juan today accused the president of condemning the citizens of puerto rico to a slow death. and donald trump swings a wrecking ball at more of president obama's legacy. today it was obamacare. tomorrow it's expected to be the iran deal. the 11th hour starts now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. i'm in this case alley wallace. brian will be back tomorrow. day 266 of the trump administration and we're seeing a new side of white house chief of staff john kelly, the crisis manager. he surprised reporters today by fielding questions in the briefing room for 28 minutes. he started with a pepper nel update. >> although i read it all the time and pretty consistently, i'm not quitting today. i don't believe and i just talked to the president, i don't think i'm being fired today. and i'm not so frustrated in

this job that i'm thinking of leaving. i would tell you, this is the hardest job i've ever had. this is, in my view, the most important job i ever had. i would offer, though, it is not the best job i ever had. the best job i ever had as i've said many times is when i was an enlisted marine sergeant infantry man. that was the best job i ever had. so unless things change, i'm not quitting. i'm not getting fired. and i don't think i'll fire anyone tomorrow. >> tomorrow. but even as the adults are on the president as they're on which described continue to play cleanup crew, a new report from the "associated press" tonight says, quote, trump has grown irritated with some of the restrictions placed on him by kelly and has vented to friends that he does not like the media depiction of the chief of staff cleaning up a dysfunctional white house. according to people who have spoken with him.

but it was precisely that image that the general's first ever appearance in the briefing room as chief of staff reinforced today. >> on process and establishing processes here at the white house. i'm wondering if you can -- >> is this the reiner hand that i brought to the staff? >> no. but did you? is that how you see it? >> no, no. >> you don't see -- >> just put some organization to it. as far as the tweets go, it's funny, i read in the newspaper -- well, you all know you write it, that, you know, i've been a failure at controlling the president or a failure at controlling his tweeting and all that. again, i was not sent in or was not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president so that he can make the best decisions. >> and "the new york times" puts it this way tonight. quote, such is the tightrope that a chief of staff in a trump presidency must walk. simultaneously dmon stlating a sense of calm and order inside the white house while being careful not to appear critical

of the president's lack of those very qualities. to our panel of reporters covering all of this today. fill, let me start with you, first off, what did you make of general kelly's first appearance in the briefing room? and what did it say about maybe the white house staff coming to some realization this morning that perhaps the president was fighting on too many fronts, one of them being against the media at large? >> yeah. well, it was a pretty extraordinary moment. it's not usual that we see a chief of staff actually at that podium. we've frankly never heard john kelly speak publicly as the chief of staff. but cheerl he felt and the president felt that things were getting a little out of control in the narrative and he needed to step forward and try to assert some order. and the presentation he gave

made him very much the trump antidote, if you will. he was different in every way from donald trump, not only in some cases in the substance of what he was saying, but certainly in his tone and demeanor and that was noticed. >> elie, i'm an admitted fan of rom comes, but i keep thinking all of these people who sort of cure trump's problems are the people who complete him. and you look at nikki haley. you know, she completes the sort of alarming rhetoric that he spews about foreign policy. you look at kelly. he sort of kmeetsz the rest of the thought whether it was about abandoning abandoning puerto rico, whether it was the relationship of the press. with all due respect and i give you the benefit the doubt, two things you never hear from donald trump. >> right. he did take the temperature down

in the briefing room and did use humor to disarm the press corps. you always have a honeymoon when you're new behind the podium, although he also used humor to sort of mock and deflect a lot of tough questions, a lot of stories that have been deeply reported and reported by a number of outlets, just sort of laughing off the idea that he's come in and ruled with an iron fist. he has instilled discipline. it has rubbed some people in that white house the wrong way, including the president. if john kelly is there to complete the president, maybe there's a rom-com narrative, nicolle, but nobody ever really seems to actually complete this president which you see in the way the president acts. he never seems satisfied or daum or happy in any of these moments. he always seems to be lashing out even as all of these staffers won by one march to the podium or in other ways seem to be performing for that audience of one. >> and this performance today was very much book ended by the performance of secretary of

state rex tillerson last week where he too in a slightly less smooth performance went to the microphones to another audience of one and issued his sort of none denial denial to parts of your report that really put into motion this current state of crisis that this white house is in. can you talk about sort of the ripple effects of the original report that rex tillerson had called donald trump a moron. was the briefing in which the president said he wished for, he wanted a larger nuclear stock pile. >> yeah. i mean, this is really the first time that we've seen since john kelly came in as chief of staff this fever pitch of these types of narratives coming out of the white house where you have the story about rex tillerson, how he referred to the president as a moron and then other stories about the president is conducting himself in these meetings and concerns that people are having about his

grasp of some of these big issues and just now how john kelly is being perceived both by the president ask approximate others in the west wing of the and so it feels like he's getting his first taste of having to come out and defend the president in a way he hasn't had to do at all publicly. the thing that i found so interesting about his performance was that, you know, there used to be this skit, the anger translator for obama, remember, because obama was so levelheaded and so you would translate. this is what he really means. he's really mad. and you saw john kelly as trump's tweet translator. he took on the angry media tweets and softened those edges and the puerto rico tweet. >> in my line of work we used to call that spin. i'll leave that. phil rucker, let me get you back in on this question that you and i been talking about this all week in the 4:00 hour, what is and is not in john kelly's control seems ton something that john kelly is very aware of, but there seems to be this almost

denial, this helplessness, this force of nature acknowledgment in terms of the kinds of things that have this white house wrapped around the axle of their own mayhem. they're not in the problem they're in with bob corker calling it adult day care because of the paper flow to the oval. they're in this problem because of the things that the president tweets. >> that's right. john kelly is the most powerful man in the west wing, but he has very little power when it comes to president trump. he cannot control the president's moves. he cannot control the president's rages. he cannot control the president's tweets. he cannot control who the president talks to on his cell phone late at night. and that's the problem in this white house is that you can have john kelly come out to the podium and give a very sober presentation luke he did today on a number of issues and frankly make people watching feel like, okay, things are in good hands. it's under control. and then you've got a president who, you know, a few hours later will be tweeting about fake news and fuming about, you know,

whatever has him riled up at that moment. and that's just something kelly cannot control and he admits he can't control it. and i don't think anybody in that white house would ever be able to control it with this president. >> you look like you want to jump in. >> well, he also kind of set the phone for how he wants to be judged in the job. he clearly doesn't want to be judged as the person who is supposed to control the president's tweets. he was very much that's not my job. my job to staff the president and get orderly information flow to him so he can make good decisions. >> i think defining your own terms of success are fine in lines of work, but not when the commander in chief is tweeting about nuclear war. i want to read you something that my former colleague wrote tonight. it's title is republicans, it's time to panic. and he writes that the problem has always been trump's fundamental unfitness for high officement it is not trump's indiscipline and lack of leadership which make carrying a legislative forward nearly impossible. it is not his vulgarity and smallness which have been the

equivalent of spray painting graffiti on the washington monument. it is not his nearly complete ignorance of policy and history which condemns him to live in the eternal present of his own immediate desires. no. corker has given public permits to races the most serious questions, is trump psychologically and moral alley equipped to be president and could his unfitness cause permanent damage to the country? isn't this the conversation that the president is desperate for us not to be having right now? on. >> it's one of them, yes. i mean, it is. and yet even though bob corker went out and said that, very few people have followed. we haven't seen anybody else on capitol hill follow. we haven't seen people -- i mean, you know, john kelly out there today is basically sipping for his supper at the white house. this is a guy who is a general who knows what is at stake here when we're talk talking about

these national security decisions. even though these things are apparent for all to see and even though privately this chief of staff has lamented how difficult this job is, how frustrating it is. how impossible is this president really is to educate and inform and calm down and play indicate. there's not much that he can do. and at this point there's not much that people are really trying to do. donald trump is the president and bob corker's statement, while he spoke for a lot of pem, based on a lot of conversations that i've had, we haven't seen those other people raise their own voices. >> phil rucker, you had a piece in your paper. we talked about it early in the week. your colleague had a piece from one of the president's closest friends who talked about how the president could do better. i've heard from some of the president's friends who have called me this week to talk about their concerns. it is abundantly clear that in times of crisis the president's friends speak to the president through the media.

do you think that the president has any idea that these aren't leaks. these are cries for help? >> he should understand that. i mean, you're certainly right about his friends speaking to him through the media. i can tell you the way the president reacts to some of this stuff is he takes it as a sign of disrespect and it just makes him even more angry and more isolated from the establishment and from this city where he governs. to see bob corker coming out and saying is that just created this rift. it burned a bridge for the president. and talking to white house advisers this week, they've been really making the point that they find it completely disrespectful that people would speak about the president of the united states in this manner using terms like adult day-care center, but the reality is that's what they're saying. bob corker is saying this because he's alarmed and he's crying for help. tom barrack that interview and made those comments in the "washington post" because he has deep genuine concern for his friend and his well-being.

>> it's also been explained to me that bob corker is speaking for people that can't speak for themtz. that he has formed a very close personal and professional relationship with the group of three, tillerson, mattis and kelly. and that he is saying things about the president that they may or may not think, but they certainly can't say publicly. your reporting about tillerson, believing that the president was a more on in that meeting, just tell me what kinds of people in that meeting? what kinds of people? the kinds of people trusted with our nation's most tensive national security secrets? >> yeah. this tk meeting, the one at the pentagon in the room called the tank, which is the conference room for joint chiefs. >> they watch operations of the tank. it's the inner -- >> being sa row sangt in the pentd gon. and it's a smaller group than a situation room meeting and it's the top senior most military

advisers that the country has. it's the defense secretary. its the chairman of joint chiefs, the vice chair of the joint chiefs, and then you have the secretary of state, secretary of treasury, the top -- some several top white house officials. so it's literally paul of the most important zidecision-makin people that this country has, including the vice president and the presidentment and they have had a very diverse discussion about different military operations and assets across the globe and in particular talked about nuclear weapons where the president said that he wanted more essentially tep times ras many as the u.s. has now. and there were other things that happened in that meeting that just left people with their jaws dropped, and that was after that was when tillerson was overheard by some of his cheegz referring to the president as a moron. and i think, to go pack to bob corker, that clearly is something that bob corker thinks and his comments right after our

story came out saying that if tillerson and mattis and kelly were the only thing standing between chaos, kind of under scored that. >> the only thing standing between chaos and this president are rex tillerson, jim mattis and the man we saw in the broefg room today, john kelly. >> scary stuff. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> still ahead tonight, what president trump is expected to do tomorrow against the advice and counsel of his secretaries of defense and state. but first, the president's threat to withdraw from puerto rico was met with a brults assessment of his response to the ongoing disaster from the mayor of san juan. we'll go inside trump's bizarre war of words in an island in the throws of a humanitarian crisis.

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toechblt puerto rico remains largely without electricity and safe drinking water. facts that made the president's threats this morning to pull aid from the island all the more alarming. tweeting, quote, puerto rico survived the hurricane. now a financial crisis looms. largely of their ownic maing, says cheryl at kin son. a total lack of accountability say the governor. lkic and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. congress to decide how much to spend. we cannot keep fema, the military and the first responders, who have been amazing, under the most difficult circumstances, in puerto rico forever, end tweet. san juan's mayor fired back in a statement, quote, tweet away your hate to mask your

administration's miss handling of this humanitarian crisis. while you are amusing yourself throwing paper towels at us, your come patriots and the world are sending will you have and help our way. condemn us to a slow death of none drinkable water? lack of food, lack of medicine? while you keep others eager to help from reaching us. joining our conversation, jeremy bash, former chief of staff of both the cia and the pentagon, also an msnbc national security analyst, rick sentencing el, elie stocky else is back, along with phil rucker, who has a new piece in the "washington post" tonight. phil, start us off tonight with this day. another surreal day of the president trash talking an island decimated from a natural disaster. >> yeah. the day started pretty early in the morning with those tweets from president trump, and that was a remarkable statement from a u.s. president to threaten to

effectively abandon the recovery efforts and within a few short hours there was some strong backlash from puerto rico, including from the governor of the territory who had been working very closely with put president trump on this recovery or over the last few weeks. he spoke out. and we saw trump administration officials try to back pelgd. the u.s. government is committed to the full recovery effort in puerto rico as long as they need it. we just think eventually you want to pull back and let the territory and the locals take over the rebuilding process from there. but we have to remember after katrina in 2000 foif, the perfectly recovery effort took many months, even years in some cases, down there. this is a long period of time, and the president's growing impatient after only throw weeks. >> jeremy bash, correct me if i'm wrong, but the united states military has a long history and a lot of skill and acumen at dealing with humanitarian crisis in these country and others.

is that not right? >> that's right. and one of the things that the logical experts in the united states department of defense can do with the unpair held expertise is really rebuild a power grid. and so it aston ishz many people who are looking at the situation as to why thoerl a month after the storm some 80% of pr prness are still without power. i think it's important to note, nicolle, that puerto ricans are americans. they pay taxes. they serve in our military -- >> can i stop you? i adpree with you, but let's acknowledge why we have to acknowledge that. i moon, i think it is often whispered but not always acknowledged out loud that there was a serious question about whether or not the president knew that. and i think the fact that we all feel the need to remind everyone that they're americans is part of the travesty of this slow motion calamity, isn't it. >> i can't tell you whether he knew it or not, but he certainly acting as if they are some sort of other, as if they are foreign. as if it's an aid and development effect of a foreign

country. no, this is america's infrastructure that he's den gating. when he says it's their economy that is in shambles, that is america's economy that is really not doing right by the americans in puerto rico. >> elie, can you speak to what jeremy just put his finger on, this idea of others, people who are other than him, other than his base, other than his supporters, other than his sycophants? they're not worthy of support from the federal government, from the agencies that help people in crisis? >> well, the nationalism that defined donald trump's campaign and his presidency was ethno genetic. it was white identity politics. and you can understand why puerto rico doesn't necessarily fit into his idea of america. whether he knows that it's part of the country or not. and on that visit that the president made down there, it was just so surreal and so obvious his inability to really kba thighs with these people and to comprehend or even accept and

face the gravity and the extremendousty of the tragic circumstances down there. he did not want to see those images of destruction. he went into a room and threw paper towels to people and kplimtd puerto rico that only 16 people died. there was no understanding that the death toll was likely to rises,as it has. and there was bivgel a message saying good job, you got through it. move on. his tweet this morning, what did it say, the if irs one? puerto rico sur vooid. they are till dealing with the after effects of this and you can see from this president that he just really wants to turn the page, move on and say, okay, you're fine, stop taking all our resources. it's just stunning the lack of empathy when we're used to presidents pretty much up until for you, presidents who will come out and after something like this say something like you're in our thoughts, you'll have all our resources, whatever you need. it's the exact opposite message

of this president and it's stunning. >> we have examples in each of last three president siz, president obama's administration. the compassion to the american people, the expertise of the u.s. military, the's sets of the state department and usa id and we helped high tee. under george w. bush's mission the tsunami was one of the worst disasters i recall. we marshalled all the same kinds of assets that jeremy and elie are both talking about. is this the kind of example of whered president's -- this president's lack of knowledge about history, about america's role in the world and there was something that got less attention, but bob corker has now on two occasions talks about the president doesn't seemingly understand the office that he holds. is that what wur seeing in his response to puerto rico.

>> well, what we're seeing in terms of america fist is not comprehending what america represents to the world, the marshall plan. we're helping american states, we're helping our former enemies. this is what makes us different. >> that's a great point. >> this is what makes us exceptional. he can't even groung up the energy to help a part of america. and the clear depiction of puerto ricans as second class citizens, either because of their et nisty, because maybe they can't vote in federal elections, but asier my says, they pay taxes. it's really something that's very disturbing and it speaks to his lack of experience, his lack of knowledge and his lack of empathy. i've never seen a president bham the victim before as he did in puerto rico. the president usually con soles people, tries to inspire them. he's absolutely incapable of that. >> elie, really quickly back to you. what does it say about the white house chief of staff and the

people around the president that no one has been able to rein in all the things that people are talking about, his displays of viewing people as other. lack of empathy and this penchant to trash talk local officials on twitter. >> john kelly said something, the thing that was the most important, telling of his comments today was when he said don't judge me talking to the press in the room. don't judge me based on what you think i should be doing. there are all those reports about, oh, john kelly is going to get the president to stop tweetingful what he was basically saying today is that this is a p is-year-old man. he is who he is and he's not iffing to change. you see a person incapable of empathy, that's who he is. i can't change that and no chief of staff can change that. you see a guy who wants to impulsively and recklessly tweet, even not understanding the things he's tweeting about, i can't change that. that was probably to me the

truest sense of what john kelly was saying today. >> thank you so much. when we come back, stop me if you've heard this. the president is, quote, furious about his options over a complex policy decision. his aides scramble to present him with manly active options and he ends up, wait for it, diagnose the opposite of what president obama did when faced with a similar predicament. we'll tell you what's expected to go down just like that tomorrow when the 11th hour continues.

do you believe it's in our national security interest at the present time to remap in the jcpoa? that's a yes-or-no question. >> yes, senator, i do. >> that was defense secretary jim mattis there taking a question last week about the jcpoa, otherwise known as the iran nuclear deal. president trump is prepared to go against the advice of his secretary of defense, his secretary of state, his national security adviser, and top generals. tomorrow he's expected to announce that he will decertify the iran deal, an agreement made during the obama administration. officials confirm to nbc news that congress has been briefed on the decision. the "washington post" reporting this week that trump, quote, threw a fit when it became clear his advisers weren't on board.

back with me, jeremy bash and rick sentencing el. jeremy, how disconcerting is it around the world and maybe even within the intelligence community and the military establishment to hear constant examples of what bob corker said months ago now, this pattern of instability and incompetent, to throw a fit, this fury, this rage that he displays when national security advisers are simply, you know, laying out their best recommendations and are among the people, the most acutely aware of the fact that the president will make the ultimate decision? >> it's not just recommendations that he's failing to accept, neck ollie. he's failing to accept facts. the intelligence community brought him an assessment that iran was in compliance with their obligations under the agreement, under the akbroemt with major world powers to stop and freeze their nuclear program. and that was the assessment not just of our intelligence community but of the joint chiefs. the and the ptd refused to

acknowledge it. but if you think about what he's going to do tomorrow and i've read through the white house talking points that have been circulating tonight, the president is basically going to go on a tirade against iran. there are a lot things about iran that what they're doing in the region that i actually agree with the president's assessment, that iran is dog some very bad things. america should counter iran's activities. he's going to say i won't sign the piece of paper, but congress, if you want to keep the sanctions waived, that's fine with he m. in essence i'm for the deal before i was against it. and it's going to be a very muddled presentation tomorrow, in my view. >> rick, it's hard with this president. if you go back in time, there was a lot of honest, intellectual debate in this country. not just the right and the left, but even within the democratic party there was a robust debate, there was a full-throated lobbying effort on the part of the obama administration and the secretary of energy was one of the top folks asked to lobby for the iran deal.

the vice president was deployed. but this is different. this seems to be concerned not about dessert fieg, which is not the same inning this as ripping up the iran deal which is what the president promised to do. this seems to be concerned that the motive is something other than what jeremy just described. this was just a nuclear deal. one of the critiques was that it didn't have any of iran's terrorist activities in the neighborhood included. it didn't free all of the people iran was holding. it seems to me the conversation we're having is one about donald trump plowing up everything just because obama did it. >> right. the reflexive opposition that anything that barak obama has done. without looking at the facts is stshing. again, let's look at the way the treaty was negotiated. the idea was to keep separate the fact that iran was a terrorist state. why? because you don't want a terrorist state to have nuclear weapons. so the clear urgency was to

prevent them from nuclearizing their arsenal. it wasn't about getting them out of gaza. it wasn't about stopping their support for syria for what they're doing in yemen. that's a further step. and all of these nuclear treaties are always negotiated as if goes and then when the time limit comes up, you renegotiate again. it's not like it just ends after 10, 20 or 30 years. i think it was very rational the way the obama administration did it and it was with the realization that iran did a lot of bad things but it was to prevent them from happening a income weapon. >> it's interesting. in the president's statement tomorrow, he says the obama administration was inappropriately and overly focused on iran's nuclear program. i mean, come on. give me a break. had the obama administration ignored the intelligence that it received when it came into office that iran had a centrifuge facility underground, buried in a mountain, too small for a civilian program.

had the obama administration ignored that, republicans would be all over the obama administration administration. it's a crazy thing. i have to add monday more thing, one of the things the trump administration has done to empower iran and very weak on iran is that they haven't taken on iran in syria. they've left in place iran's proxy. by canceling a program to arm anti-assad forces, that's something this trump white house did. that is a spre pro iran move. >> and the alignment, the partnership, the refusal to condemn russia also indetectel strengthens iran, doesn't it? >> it does because in effect there is an alliance there between the iranness, the syrian regime and the russians in syria and the trump administration has been unwilling to take that on. >> thanks, guys. we're going to sneak in a quick break, but when we come back, facebook, russia and american democracy. can facebook coo cheryl sandberg

say i'm sorry. we'll put that question to the reporter who just interviewed here when the is 1st hour continues. slept... you're not you. tylenol® pm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. we give you a better night. you're a better you all day. tylenol®. your privacy makes you myt number 1 place to go number 2. i love you, but sometimes you stink. febreze air effects doesn't just mask, it cleans away odors. because the things you love the most can stink. and try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. breathe happy with febreze.

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you know what's easy? building your website with godaddy. get your domain today and get a free trial of gocentral. build a better website in under an hour. congressional investigations into the full impact of russian ads across social media continued this week after meeting with facebook's chief operating officer, sheryl sandberg, republican and democratic leaders of the house intel committee announced yesterday they plan to release thousands of ads after a november hearing. sandberg spoke to axios cofounder michael lesson earlier today about the social media giant's role in preventing foreign interference. >> things happened on our platform in this election that should not have happened especially and very troubling, foreign interference in a democratic election. and we know that we have a

responsibility to do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse. this is a new threat, but it's not really a new challenge. and unfortunately, there have always been bad actors out there who are trying to undermine our society and our values. and what's important about these meetings and all the work we're doing together is that if we all work together, we'll never solve everything completely, but we can make it a lot harder to harm us. >> and michael lesson is with us now. thanks for being with us. mike, i didn't hear her say the words i am happy. did i miss it? >> you didn't, nicolle, and good evening after your very long day. and i asked sheryl sandberg if facebook owes the american people an apology, that this election was -- the foreign actors were able to interfere in this election, and she said well, we don't just owe an apology. we owe a responsibility to fix it in the future. so we heard sheryl sandberg

saying that the facebook will cooperate wp congress, that she is for releasing all these ads, that they're continuing to look for information that might be relevant to congress. but nicolle, something else you didn't hear sheryl sandberg saying is that facebook is going to change, because what's happening here is congruent with both the facebook philosophy and the business model. i asked her, these ads were taken down because they were fake russian accounts. but what if they were real accounts with these divisive ads which brought up issues of race and guns and lgbt, sexual identity, would they be allowed to run if they were real accounts and she said yes. and she said facebook is about free expression. and on the business model side, i asked her, why should someone who couldn't bring rubles into an american election and make a

contribution to a campaign be allowed to pay in rubles for ads that are clearly designed to affect that campaign? and she said well, there's very legitimate russian businesses that want to buy ads on facebook and so of course we take rubles. that's why this is hard to stop and, of course, why it could happen again. >> michael lesson, i thought you were an excellent question, but she reminded me of sort of a campaign or a political institution circumstancea is the 78 where the first instinct is to be opaque, not transparent, or the first instinct is to zwlekt responsibility when sort of the movement in crisis management is to sort of own up to your since before you can turn a page. i want to ask you if you have any sense from talk to go her today if she understands that what's coming for facebook, based on their posture, their public relations posture is that they are make tg more likely

that they will be more heavily regular laid, that they are moving closer to being treated like a media orpgs, like the one for which i work where there are starpds for every word, every letter, every drop of information that is shared from nbc and msnbc is held to standards. it has to meet true standards. you couldn't buy something with a ruble without that being scloegsd. does facebook understand that this is its destiny based on its refusal to be more forthcoming, more transparent and a bigger part of the solution? >> well, nicolle, talk to go lawmakers, both parties clearly think that the big tech companies are a big target. i think this will be one of the huge issues of 2018. you're right about facebook's initial posture. for many months there was sort of a nothing to see here, and it was only after great infrastructure from the hill that we saw these disclosures. clearly it was not facebook's

instinct. give sheryl sandberg credit for being on the hill and sitting down and answering 30 minutes of questions with axios no holds barred, willing to answer anything. and other tech companies should do that as well. but you're right, like these companies, they have become -- they started very light as start ups. now they're massive institutions. and nicolle, you've been part of the massive institutions that respond to crisis. >> and i've been covered by you, one of the best reporters in the business. we have to sneak in a break. can i ask you to stay on the other side and give everyone a little preview. >> awesome. >> the stories we'll be looking at tomorrow morning when the 11th hour continues.

we're back in the closing minutes of a thursday. we still have michael lesson with us, who we held over.

rick sentencing elis with us of the jeremy bash is also staying up late with me. michael lesson, you were such a get and while i have you, i want to know what you're leading with tomorrow morning. as soon as i open my eyes, shof my glasses on. >> well, thank you so much, nicolle, and you've seen me say in axios a.m. over many weeks now. watch what the president does, not what he says or tweets. most of what's come out of this administration in the last nine months has been noise rather than action. but now, nicolle, suddenly we have the president actually doing things. we've had previews of them here on the 11th hour. three really consequential things. one taking this momentous and muddled action on iran. second while you've been on the air the white house made official what we've been reporting throughout the day and nbc has been reporting throughout the day about the

president cutting off subsidies that help some low income people on health care. and third, the "washington post" out with a story tonight fascinately, the president will get credit for this telling a senator that he's willing to extend that d.r.e.a.m.ers program through march 5th if congress doesn't act. so there's not going to be a cliff on daca the way we thought there might be. >> we've talked about iran, but i wonder if i can get you to weigh in on the daca development, not just for the substance of it, but also for the process. this is one of the accomplishments that the president has. this is something he's going to get credit for. i'm not sure if he'll get credit with his base. i don't think he'll pay a price. it's something he did with democrats. >> yeah. well, he has a real opportunity to save the american dream tore people who again have been paying taxes, who have been serving in our military and who want to contribute to our

society. those dooermts. he has an opportunity, but it's not clear that he has an actual plan to deliver something for him. this is critically important that he get this one fixed. >> rick, whenever i hear the words come out of my mouth that he might get credit for something beyond his business, i always sort of cringe and hope -- we know the president watches a lot of television, that it doesn't have the opposite effect, that it doesn't cause him to lurch back toward the nativism. so do you think that he'll go the distance with this daca development or do you think that an attack from steve bannon or an attack from someone from sort of the trump base will scare him off? >> you know, almost the theme of tonight's show has been that he goes with what his emotions are rather than any kind of rational thought or argument of the the young people have a little bit of an emotional hold on them.

each though he's conforming with obama policy. so he does what is kind of in his emotional sweet spot. the fact that he might get some kudos for doing it is something that would om make it better. i think he will let congress try to figure out than have a policy hums on it and then he'll feel sort of emeasurable moeshlel gratified by it. >> he seems to work in twos and when he presents something that might anger his base, he likes to chase it with and that will thrill them. do you have any sense of what the daca development might be paired with. >> one of the reasons for that is to keep boets sides off base -- >> he's at 31%. he shouldn't be so worried about balance. if he goes up two points it would be an improvement. >> no. that's right. and this is where there may have been a massive miscalculation. it's their view and this was the view of your administration,

nicolle, is that you don't need 51% anymore, but you do need more than # 1%. and from day one i've been surprised, the biggest surprise of this administration is the president hasn't done more to reach the 54% of people who didn't vote forth him. nickel ollie, you knew him before he was president and you might have thought that that might be his sweet spot that as the dealmaker, something you've been a democratic, he would be willing and able to do. very little effort as we've seen. >> and it's surprising, as you say for someone he's not ideological. it's shocking how he's gone to the right on most issues and gone further than even his own bay would require him to do. thank you for being us. thanks for staying up late with us. coming up, the latest on the devastating wildfires still threatening towns across my home state, northern california. that's when the 11th hour continues.

it's crazy to see something that can move that far that quickly and i know that through my experience that these fires move way faster than anybody can imagine. but because of the wind conditions and the fire weather conditions, this one, i guess, moved incredibly fast. i was told by one of the sheriff officers that this whole neighborhood was engulfed in less than ten minutes. >> the last thing before we go tonight. in california officials say the death toll from the growing wildfires has now reached 31 people. more than 400 people are still listed as missing, and first responders say they still cannot get into some areas to search as the flames continue to rage out of control. the "associated press" reports that the fires have grown to over 300 square miles. that's the size of all of new york city. thousands of homes and

businesses have been destroyed, and many families are sleeping in shelters tonight. complicating things for firefighters, there is no rain in the forecast for sew no ma county for the next several days. one official with the california department of forestry and fire protection told nbc news they're actually expecting winds to pick up tomorrow. he added, quote, it's going to continue to get worse before it gets better. that's our broadcast tonight. broin will be back tomorrow. thank you for being with us and good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. >> three weeks into the dissals tear in puerto rico, why is the president now threatening to pull federal support? >> we will be there all the time to help puerto rico recover. plus -- >> where's john kelly? stand up, john. >> a "unraveling president" sends his chief of staff to go after the media. >> one of his frustrations is you.